[DeTomaso] Colotti 4 speed

[L GRAY]

Ok , my iPhone just went nuts and included Mikes picture of Pantera SI suspension for some reason !!!
    Any way, the open top car has the Indy V-8 with 48IDA Weber carbs on it. I'll try to get some pics next week. 

Leslie A. Gray

> On Mar 2, 2014, at 10:42 AM, MikeLDrew at aol.com wrote:
> 
>   In a message dated 3/2/14 8 03 21, gaino at earthlink.net writes:
> 
>     http://www.mecum.com/auctions/lot_detail.cfm?LOT_ID=HA0414-184930&ut
>     m_source=emv&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=HA0414-S147.1   I never
>     heard of a Colloti 4 speed?
> 
>>>> That was the Achilles heel of the original GT40.
>   The GT40 was built in a hurry, and at the time the only available
>   gearbox that would seem to do the job was an Italian four-speed.  It
>   quickly showed that it was not up to the task, and Ford arranged for ZF
>   in Germany to design and build an all-new purpose-built gearbox for the
>   GT40.  The thing is, there was a bureaucratic hangup, and the contract
>   was never finalized but Ford apparently didn't know it.  So seven
>   months went by, and Ford finally asked, "Where are our gearboxes" and
>   ZF's reply was "What gearboxes?  You never actually placed the order?"
>   Or something like that.
>   So the cars had to suffer even longer with the woeful Colotti unit.
>   Once the ZFs arrived, there was no looking back.
>   The small-block cars would often fail to finish races due to head
>   gasket failure; it took years for Ford to crack that nut.  In the
>   interim they shifted gears (figuratively speaking) and went for a
>   big-block 427 solution.  They believed the ZF was incapable of handling
>   the torque, and so they designed and built their own four-speed
>   transaxle (made by Kar Kraft), which utilized standard Ford toploader
>   four-speed gearbox internals.
>   Ironically, due to improper heat treatment of some gears, initially the
>   Kar Kraft gearboxes failed and put the cars out.  But once that minor
>   niggle was sorted, they became unbeatable.  Which is why the rules were
>   changed to simply outlaw large displacement, which effectively outlawed
>   the GT40.
>   Who would have guessed that Ford (well, actually Ford was pretty much
>   out of the GT40 business by then, and it was really John Wyer
>   Associates, JWA) then would have spiffed up the by-now-old and
>   always-overweight GT40, fit it with wider wheels and bigger brakes, and
>   a more thoroughly developed 302 engine, and go on to win for two more
>   years?
>   Mike
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